Arc=Arc

Last week started cold: daytime highs in the low to mid 40's, and Tuesday night (if I remember correctly) lows were forecast to reach 23. As the week went on, it slowly warmed. Friday was gorgeous: mid 50's and sunny; even Thursday had been nice- not quite as warm, but still nice.

Then Friday afternoon, I saw an arc around the sun...This is often (not always, but often) a sign of warm moist air moving in and creating a haze of upper troposphere ice crystals. In the above, we're looking west along Monroe (from the smokers' purgatory at my favorite coffee shop) and a little south to the north side of the Oregon State University Campus. Below, I zoomed in to get the sundog on the north portion of the arc.I think it actually comes through better in the first picture. At any rate, "warm moist air moving in" is an opaque way of saying, "wet warm front moving in; prepare thee an arc."

Our weather since Friday night has been... vigorous is a good word. We've had some sun breaks, and I'm always surprised at how quickly the ground dries. But it has been pouring. And blowing. And pouring some more.

I'm not really complaining; as I've said before, I sort of like the rain, and the weekend was warm. We've had a relatively dry winter, and some real rain feels right. With the time change last week, the flowers, and the warmth, it really is starting to feel like spring.